WOW! It took less than a year into his term of office for Dean Martin's 'creative' campaign and personal accounting tricks to warrant official investigation.
Yesterday, the East Valley Tribune broke the story of an investigation by the State Attorney General's office into Dean Martin's financial statements, both personal and campaign.
From the story -
A special agent in Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard’s office is gathering financial records on state Treasurer Dean Martin — the chief witness in a separate criminal probe of Goddard’s agency, according to e-mails obtained by the Tribune.
Robert Brunansky of the attorney general’s office last month obtained Martin’s personal financial disclosure statements from the Arizona Secretary of State, according to Brunansky’s public records request sent from his attorney general’s account.
Brunansky also asked for tutoring in how to review Martin’s campaign finance statements, which are available online, according to Kevin Tyne, assistant secretary of state.
Now, to avoid a possible conflict of interest, the investigation has been handed over to the FBI. (Whoooo hooooo!)
From the EV Trib story on that development -
Information on Treasurer Dean Martin obtained by the state attorney general’s office was forwarded to the FBI Friday, according to a spokesman for Attorney General Terry Goddard.
The referral was made the same day the Tribune reported that a special agent in Goddard’s office was collecting financial records on Martin, the chief witness in a separate criminal investigation of Goddard’s agency being conducted by Maricopa County officials.
Steve Wilson, a spokesman for Goddard, said the referral to the FBI was made to avoid any conflict of interest in the agency regarding Martin and his role in the investigation being conducted by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
A quick perusal of the original article (linked above) has quotes from Martin and various Republican flacks calling the AG's investigation "retaliation" for the ongoing "investigation" of Goddard by Martin, Republican Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and Republican Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas.
The only problem with that assertion?
As can be seen from my posts and posts by others (including the aforementioned Bob Haran, who, while definitely a hardcore Republican, has been all over Martin's misdeeds), the investigation of Martin is legitimate and overdue.
As for the sham 'investigation' by the troika of Arpaio, Thomas, and Martin? Well, let's just say that at least two of the three have their eyes on the Governor's race in 2010.
...Ummm....I don't really mean to toot my own horn here (really!! ;) ), but a little over a year ago in September 2006, I wrote three posts on the very topic of Mr. Martin and his funnelling of campaign contributions into personal businesses.
On September 1, September 4, and later on September 4, I chronicled my research into the 2006 race for Arizona State Treasurer between Mr. Martin and Democrat Rano Singh.
On December 1, I asked 'Anybody want to start a "Dean Martin Indictment Date Pool"?'
Wonder if there are any takers now??? :)
Have a great weekend!
1 comment:
Update on the Dean Martin campaign finance scandal.
I really got tired of playing games with Dean Martin over this matter. Every time I would mention this scandal on some blog and demand an investigation, some anonymous poster using the name of Ruby, would make vicious attacks against me and accuse me of all sorts of things in his rants. I can't help but to believe, based on the information that this Ruby had, that Ruby was Dean Martin or his wife, Kerry.
Since it seemed that no one was taking any action on this matter and it just sort of fell through the cracks in the press, I notified Attorney General Terry Goddard of the information I had because I knew, having previously worked as an administrative aid with the New York Police Department, that there certainly was enough probable cause for an investigation. As it turned out there was more to this case then even I knew and it involved multiple violations of both state and federal law and after a preliminary inquire, the Attorney General turned the case over to the FBI.
It only toke me 2 years and 10 months to get an official investigation started on this matter, that was handed to the Arizona press on a silver platter many times in the past but ignored.
In brief what I discovered by chance was that Dean Martin and his wife had set up two front business' and then aggressively solicited campaign contributions from lobbyist with business before the legislature. Once the campaign contributions were received by his campaign committee, which he controlled, he diverted the campaign contributions into the two business', Digital Print Design, which was owned by Dean Martin, and Grassroots Programs, which was owned by his wife, Kerry Martin. From those two business', the money went directly to Dean Martin and his wife.
Because Dean Martin accepted money from people with business before the legislature and diverted it into his own pocket, he created a conflict of interest in relation to his duties as a member of the legislature, which is a Class 6 Felony, which also makes his washing of the contributions through his campaign committee and the two so called business entities, money laundering, which is a serious federal felony.
Unfortunately for Mr. Martin, ever time he signed a campaign finance report with the Arizona Secretary of State, he was also signing a confession.
I expect to be viciously attacked by Mr. Martin in the near future with all sorts of accusations, but when you're in a fight, some times you have to take a few punches. I knew that what Dean Martin did was wrong and that there was no way it could possible be legal, as Martin was claiming.
BOB HARAN,
Phoenix
Post a Comment